SPILLOVER SOTU AFTERMATH: Not everybody responds to the State of the Union in the minutes after the speech. Some like to mull it over a bit and sleep on it after a late night. House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster did exactly that, and he still couldn’t find anything about the issue everybody seemed to be listening for: funding. “I welcome the President’s interest in improving our infrastructure,” Shuster said in a statement from his T&I office. “We have significant long-term infrastructure needs that must be addressed and responsibly paid for to improve our economic competitiveness, efficiency, and quality of life. However, instead of showing leadership on these critical issues, the President offered little more than recycled sound bites from old speeches.” Full statement: http://1.usa.gov/Mw9alH

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But… Shuster’s personal office was even more critical of the president. He’s out with a scathing new video about the shuttering of a coal plant in his district ( http://bit.ly/1exZldp). A written statement from Shuster’s personal office bashing the speech focused on that closure and EPA regulations but didn’t address infrastructure: http://1.usa.gov/1hOD4eL

Another voice in the funding specificity choir: “We appreciate the president reminding lawmakers that transportation and waterways bills need to be priorities in 2014. But proposing to pay for infrastructure with short-term, highly-speculative gains from a tax reform bill that may or may not happen this year does nothing to restore the long-term fiscal integrity of the Highway Trust Fund. New, transportation-dedicated user fees have to be part of the solution. By failing to wake Congress and the public up to that simple fact, the president missed an important opportunity to move the ball down the field,” said AED President and CEO Brian McGuire.

Sixth’s time a charm: NSSGA President and CEO Michael Johnson: “The president once again mentioned the need to rebuild America’s surface transportation infrastructure in his State of the Union address. I hope the sixth time is the charm because it will take presidential leadership to find a long-term solution to the pending insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund.”

An unexpected ally: Former Secretary of State and current Global Infrastructure Initiative Co-chair Madeleine Albright is on board with Obama’s message Tuesday night. “I was heartened by the President’s call for a renewed commitment to infrastructure. In my travels, I have seen first-hand how vital good roads, bridges, ports and waterways, power grids, and communication facilities are in enabling communities and countries to compete in the global economy. Without these investments, societies stagnate. With them, the opportunities provided by trade, new marketing arrangements, and advanced technology become available to all sectors,” she said in a statement.

THURSDAY THE 30TH. Thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports, where it was 11 years ago today that attempted shoe-bomber Richard Reid was sentenced to life in prison after he tried (and failed) to blow up a plane with explosives in his shoes. Please be in touch: asnider@politico.com. And follow me on Twitter: @AdamKSnider.

AMTRAK’S TRUST FUND TRY: Kathryn reports for Pros: “The head of Amtrak wants his rail service to have a place in the massive multiyear transportation bill that Congress is due to pass by October. But the idea faces a steep climb on the Hill. Amtrak sounded its message again Tuesday, when most of Washington was focused on the State of the Union. Rather than talk about what the rail line wanted President Barack Obama to say, as so many other transportation groups did, Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman blasted out a press release calling for restructuring the trust fund that pays for most federal highway and transit spending. Specifically, he wants Amtrak and other rail programs to be included in the authorization bill Congress passes every few years for highway and transit projects. That would also give it access to the Highway Trust Fund, which is primarily fueled by gasoline taxes. The last transportation bill, the venue for spending Highway Trust Fund revenues, weighed in at about $109 billion, though some of that money came from the general Treasury.” Full story: http://politico.pro/1iMA99T

Counterpoint: Rail expert and author Frank Wilner: “That President Obama mentioned not a word on high speed rail or Amtrak in his State of the Union speech reflects on the rather dreadful manner in which his administration has pursued the presidential vision in support of expanded rail passenger service. … A grand vision absent intrepid and indomitable teamwork is but a pretentious hallucination, as we are seeing with President Obama's aspiration to advance high speed trains and extend passenger rail opportunities throughout the nation.” Railway Age: http://bit.ly/1dOKMB9

EXCLUSIVE TO PROS LATER TODAY: POLITICO Pro will publish a special report on President Barack Obama’s executive power maneuvers, with a dozen stories looking at virtually every area of regulation, rule-making and executive action coming from the administration. The special report will dive into the president’s State of the Union promises and will reveal a much deeper regulatory and executive power agenda for the final years of Obama’s term. Look out for an email later this evening, customized to your policy interests.

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MAILBAG — Oil slowing Amtrak: NARP is urging Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to do something about Amtrak delays reaching ten hours on a route that stretches from Chicago to the Seattle. The culprit? All that crude oil on trains that you keep reading about after derailments, explosions and even deaths. “While severe weather has played a contributing factor, the delays are in large part due to the logjam of rail congestion caused by hundreds of additional freight trains transporting crude oil extracted in North Dakota to refineries in other parts of the U.S.,” wrote NARP President Ross Capon in a letter asking Foxx to gather the parties to discuss the issue. Read it: http://bit.ly/Lq5aCq

NOBPIFA IS THE NEW TIFIA: A bipartisan quartet in the House has a bill to create a TIFIA-like program to boost spending on bike and pedestrian projects. But this one isn’t quite as easy to pronounce as the TIFIA program that got a major boost in MAP-21. The New Opportunities for Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure Financing Act turns into NOBPIFA on the acronym-happy Hill. It’s sponsored by T&I Democrat Albio Sires and Andre Carson along with Republicans Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. http://bit.ly/1ey4RfW

WHAT MATTERS IN WINTER DRIVING — NaCl: The American Highway Users Alliance has a new report, “Safety Impacts of Using Deicing Salt,” about sodium chloride and just how much it helps improve driving safety in bad winter weather. The study finds salty roads cut down on crashes by 85 percent and that road condition matters more than things like visibility and wind speed. Improving friction on a road by 10 percent yields a 20 percent decline in crashes. Citing FHWA figures showing over 1,300 deaths because of crashes in snowy, icy or slushy roads, AHUA President and CEO Gregory Cohen said the issue “presents a huge challenge to our nation’s state and local governments who must act quickly to keep roads safe and clear.” Full study: http://bit.ly/1b8Ci80

ANOTHER BAD CRUISE: The “Explorer of the Seas” cruise where nearly 700 people got sick with a bad stomach bug is finally back to port in New Jersey, and Rep. John Garamendi used the occasion to call again for action on his Cruise Ship Passenger Bill of Rights ( http://1.usa.gov/1e8FKWc). “Cruise ship passengers have a right to know in advance whether they are booking passage on the ‘Love Boat’ or on a voyage to despair,” he said in a statement.

SLOW GOING FOR FAST CALIFORNIA TRAINS: The California Supreme Court has rejected a plea from Gov. Jerry Brown to review a recent ruling against the project, but the high court did fast-track the matter while sending it to an appellate court (KCRA: http://bit.ly/1b5Vo1V). Rep. Jeff Denham, chairman of T&I’s rail panel and critic of the project, said it’s “becoming clearer and clearer that the California High-Speed Rail Authority has no way to make the April 1 deadline from the FRA to secure $180 million in state funding,” and went on to plug his bill to hold federal funds.

THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ)

- The National Park Service is looking at parking meters on the National Mall to fund a Circulator bus route. Greater Greater Washington: http://bit.ly/1icLTQu

- San Francisco city report contradicts coroner’s finding that one of the Asiana victims died after being run over by a rescue truck. The AP: http://usat.ly/1hPFrxK

- Two House members warn Maryland over a firm bidding for the Purple Line project because its majority owner moved victims to Nazi death camps during the Holocaust. Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1n0vJK0

- NAFTA trade was up in three of five modes in November 2013 compared to the year before. BTS: http://1.usa.gov/Lb4gJh

THE COUNTDOWN: MAP-21 expires and DOT funding runs out in 244 days. FAA policy is up in 609 days. The mid-term elections are in 278 days and the 2016 presidential election is in 1,013 days. Oh, and MLB’s spring training officially opens in 14 days.

CABOOSE — WRRDA cloud: MT has done them for MAP-21 and PRIIA. Now it’s time to take the plunge and see how the House-passed water bill looks as a word cloud. “Secretary” is the biggest, appearing the most often the bill text, with “project” and “act” not far behind. Give it a look on Wordle: http://bit.ly/1fdiqDg

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Authors:

About The Author

Adam Snider is a transportation reporter for POLITICO Pro and author of Morning Transportation. He has covered transportation since 2007, joining POLITICO in 2011 to launch MT and later found the word “Mica-ism.”

Snider is a fan of all modes of transportation, though nothing beats a good silly walk. In his spare time, he can be found brewing a hoppy beer, rooting for the Nationals, watching a bad 1970s horror movie or exploring the District from his home base in Mount Pleasant.

Adam studied English and communications at Clemson University in South Carolina. His work has been featured by Nieman Journalism Lab and his snark has appeared on MSNBC. He has had several works of fiction published in literary journals and is constantly reminded of his proclamation to a fiction professor many years ago that journalism is for sellouts who abandon their creative dreams.